A University of Colorado at Boulder professor has designed a free, online four-hour course for journalists and others who want to learn more about climate change.
Tom Yulsman, co-director of CU's Center for Environmental Journalism, worked for five months on the project and collaborated with the Internews Network and the Poynter Institute, on whose Web site the course resides.
"In some ways, it's an online textbook with basic background information on everything from the history of climate change research to the physics of greenhouse gases to explanations of the major policy approaches," said Yulsman. "In others ways, it's a series of magazine articles with storylike elements, sidebars, photographs and illustrations."
Climate change is a prominent topic in the news and the course went live just prior to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, said Yulsman. Students and others using the site will learn about climate change history, science and policy, as well as skills at discerning newsworthiness.
"Since the course is on the Web we tried our best to introduce multimedia and engaging interactive activities, including a news judgment simulation in which users do some reporting and then have to decide what news to focus on in a story," he said.
The self-paced course includes approximately four hours of content. To register visit . For more information on CU-Boulder's Center for Environmental Journalism visit /. For more information on CU-Boulder's involvement in the United Nations Climate Change Conference visit /.